Dacia (H/H)

[Beast Within]

Right i have just started a campaign for Dacia on H/H and thought i would give you a little update on how it was going.

Firstly i would like to say that so far it has been a little too easy for my liking.

I quickly took over Sythia and some of the rebel settlements in about 10 turns. Therefore I think maybe Sythia should present more of a threat either by strengthening Sythia or weakening Dacia.

Secondly I gained a vast amount of money at the start from my settlements meaning that I could produce armies fast which in turn helped me destroy Sythia quicker.

Thirdly and lastly I think much of the problem has arose from the cost of units. It is far too easy to produce a strong army for a low price.

Obviously this are just my opinion from the start of the game in which I have only been playing for 30 turns or so. Therefore some of these things which i have been saying such as the easiness of the campaign could change vastly when i tackle Macedonia and other kingdoms.

Just like to say that i haven't been playing for quite some time but the way the new campaign map looks and new icons I have noticed for battles and so on is amazing great job there.


The following pictures show how the faction has been doing overall:

[dvk901]

Cut Dacian economy and beefed up the Scythians.

[Beast Within]

Ok so should i start again or just carry on with my campaign then?

[dvk901]

Start again, if you would. I'd like to see how much it changes the beginning.

[sithlord447]

DVK thats how this game is made so that with all the cash at the begining you need to invest in your economy heavily, or later you are ed so by getting rid of starting cash while you may avoid rushing you possibly cripple the player later

[Beast Within]

I have managed to play the first 10 years of the campaign and it would seem what sithlord has said is right. Though it has stopped me from spreading to quickly into sythian lands it has meant that my economy has struggled and then with it the development of my cities.

So maybe a wiser move would be to both strengthen sythia with better troops and more money. I dont know the historical evidence as such to how sythia did, whether they should be a string faction or instead a faction i should easily be able to destroy, obivously it all comes down to what you think and whether you think i should be able to destory sythia with relative ease or maybe they should present a real challenge.

But as sithlord said i think it is a mistake to weaken dacia, instead just improve sythia if you deem that that should be done as the real sythia may have been a weak faction anyway.

[tone]

Actually the Boii would be the ones to strengthen, as Dacia battled with them and historically had to take them over.

[Beast Within]

well thats my point i aint to up to scratch on the history of dacia, i am just going off my cam[paign and in both campaigns i have began boii havent attacked once.

I will start another and attempt to fight off boii being my first target and see whether they are a easy target.

[dvk901]

I made some more adjustments. Hopefully it will be better this time. Be sure and update.

[Beast Within]

Campaign II: Report I

So far 10 years of both peace and war have ensued since the start of this new campaign. In these last 10 years (20 turns). I have expanded, developed and began two wars against two of my main riva in the beginning phase of the campaign. Sythia and Boii.

In this report I will go over:

• Economy
• Development
• Army Composition
• Diplomacy
• Sythia War
• Boii War

so lets begin.

Economy:

The recent problem of the economy which I brought up early has been solved since DVK has corrected it back to normal. Obviously I will have to keep on playing till I know for sure whether the economy is correct as its too early in the game right now to know exactly.

I have been building many of the economy beneficial buildings in all of the settlements I own and I am now gaining a tidy profit of about 30000 denari per turn.

About 10 turns in my economy did fall because of the increase of troop flow to supply my armies in the war against Sythia and also because I was struggling taking rebel settlements surrounding my homeland.

As I began to take these lands my economy balanced out to a reasonable 15000 denari a turn however this was nothing compared to the 45000 denari I was once earning at the start of the game.

Whether my economy will recover to its peak at the start game we will have to see. The only way I see it doing so is if I have a period of peace but at present that doesn't look likely for quite sometime as I am at war with both Sythia and Boii, and since Macedon is allied to Sythia I doubt it will be long till they join in the war from the south.

Overall the economy issues I would say are sound for know, this could change in the game as time goes on but I am hopefully building enough economy buildings to make sure that my economy doesn't plummet when it has to service a bigger empire with troops and buildings later in the game.

Development:

Throughout all my settlements I have been concentrating on building mainly economy buildings and then buildings to make my citizens happy. Only in the outer regions of my land have I been building military buildings. This is just to secure the area and so I can quickly re supply armies in the field in the two wars I am currently in.

I have mainly been building the mines all across my empire as many of the settlements I now own can build the haltstatt and durnburg mines which are essential to my economy.

One thing I would say however is why the lack of stone roads. I realise that Dacia are essentially a barbarian tribe which would not have such things however I think it limits the player.

I thought that possibly you could add a new range of buildings for barbarian tribes in which you could bring in 'scientists' so to speak to improve your technology.

I know that historically Phillip did it for Macedonia by bringing in Greek philosophers to teach his some what barbarian people. So maybe this can be the same.

Maybe you may think it is not historical but half the time where the player expands, what troops they use, what they build isn't historically accurate either.

This 'Research' building so to speak could unlock better technology such as aqueducts and stone roads for the more barbarian tribes of the north if the player chooses it. However I think it should also be expensive and come with a public order loss as many of the people will think that it is against there culture, which it is.

I think it would add something to the barbarian game, and I am not saying it has to be implemented by the player it is just a choice for the player, some may prefer to play with the old barbarian style buildings. However some may want to develop their barbarian faction further and make it a far more civilised faction.

Army Composition:

I have mainly been using a range of cavalry when it has come to creating my armies. This is mainly because I enjoy using the cavalry and I also find them very effective against the less armoured northern tribes.

My basic composition is as follows:

• General
• 10 Roxolani Lancers (Horse Archers)
• 6 Roxolani Nobles
• 3 Thrakian Hippeis

I generally build them at the capital as this is the only place where I can get all these troops. I do use some infantry for garrisoning forts and settlements however the only time when I use them in field armies is when that army is besieging a settlement.

If you would like me to try out all army compositions I will as I can see how me playing with just this kind of army composition could be a problem for testing. I am sure however that soon i will be using infantry more frequently as me empire stretches out and I am forced to use more units which I can recruit in regions on the borders of my territory which will most like mean that I will have to use infantry.

Diplomacy:

Just thought I would add this in case you were interested.

As of now I am allied with just Greece. Then I have trade rights with Macedon, Belgae and Sarmatia. And I am at war with Boii, Sythia and the Free People.

Sythia War:

The war first began when I trespassed into there land and placed a field army beside Histrya (I think that it is called that). They then sent 2 field army to attack the army and the war began.

I managed to defend myself with a heroic win as I caused vast damage to the armies with my horse archers then closed in with my Roxolani nobles causing them to route.

Once the war began I quickly assaulted Piroboridava and with in one turn I had took the settlement and then sent the whole army over to the Sythian capital of Noviodunon.

With in 3 turns I had stifled any chance of Sythia defending themselves. I have yet to take Campus Alazones but I am sending stack of horsemen there right now. Sythia still exist and since I am presently fighting Boii I expect it will be quite some time till I eliminate them totally.

Overall I have faced twice as many troops so far in the war and have only lost about a third of my troops. Therefore I would say this has been a reasonably easy war so far. So once again I wonder whether Sythia should be this easy to destroy. However then again my armies have destroyed Boii armies quite easily too so maybe it is the ability of the army. But I must say I did take far more losses against Boii compared to Sythia.

Boii War:

In this war I moved two full stacks into the forests around Caruntum, waiting for another army to come support them. Once this stack came through I moved straight for the capital Vidobona with my first two field armies. Leaving the reinforcements to guard my lands just in case the my other field armies were quickly destroyed by Boii troops and I would have to protect my lands from the remaining Boii troops.

Vidobona was protected by a full stack outside and another full stack which was governing the city. My two stacks went against Boii's forces immediately. I lost about half of my forces however my armies did destroy both of Boii's armies completely.

I then moved on Caruntum with a Stack I put together from the remaining troops I had at Vidobona. They quickly squashed all resistance at Caruntum and now i control there too. However Boii still have a region somewhere which i am yet to find.


Overall it has been a relatively quick war just like my war against Sythia, but I have took more losses when fighting against the Boii. It was a good job that I was not outnumbered like I was against Sythia as I may not of done as well as I have against Boii.

Pictures:

[Visarion]

Interesting... oh it's Piroboridava not Proboridava by the way! Piroboridava was the capital of the Carpians and their king Pieporus!

And Singindunum not Singindun of the Scordisci! It used to be called Singidava and was inhabited by Dacians until Scordisci migrated there and changed the name in Singindunum!

Edit: I see you have corrected some city names... one more thing isn't it Noviodunum instead of Noviodunon? I thought "dunum" means "settlement" in Celtic! anyway guess both are right...

[tone]

"dunum" is the romanised version of "dunon"

[tone]

Question: The Bastarnae and the Daoi elite infantry share a model. Both currently use a merc slot in the EDU. My thoughts are to remove any references to the "thraikan elite falxmen", which is the internal name for the Daoi, from the EDB and make only the Bastarnae more widely recruitable by other factions, leaving the Daoi as a Dacia-only (or possibly Dacia and barbarian rebels (thrace faction for non-Roman campaigns) unit. Any thoughts?

[jakeswe]

Question: The Bastarnae and the Daoi elite infantry share a model. Both currently use a merc slot in the EDU. My thoughts are to remove any references to the "thraikan elite falxmen", which is the internal name for the Daoi, from the EDB and make only the Bastarnae more widely recruitable by other factions, leaving the Daoi as a Dacia-only (or possibly Dacia and barbarian rebels (thrace faction for non-Roman campaigns) unit. Any thoughts?

Yes, sounds like a good idea. You are talking about the new unit right?
There is already Daoi elite infantry in the game and it shares model(and stats almost) with the Thraikan falxmen, so the new model replaces the old and has more incommon with Bastarnae? That is great.

Now you can recruit:
Thraikan Falxmen
Dacian Elite Falxmen
Daoi elite infantry
Bastarnae
as mercenary

It becomes:
Thraikan Falxmen
Bastarnae
with wider recruitment zone?

[Visarion]

about that... yes Daoi Elite Infantry or Falxmen should be recruited only by Dacia and possibly Sarmatia, Scythia and Boii as AOR while Bastarnae should be recruitable by Dacia, Scythia, Sarmatia and Macedon, possibly Pergamum and Pontus as AOR... Thracian Elite Infantry on the other hand should be still in game, maybe reskinned and recruited by the majority of the eastern factions because Thracians were very important and appreciated mercenaries back then. Thracian Elite Infantry should be recruited by Dacia, Macedon, Pergamum, Pontus, Seleucid Empire, Ptolemaic Empire and possibly Greek City States... and maybe Scythia! Thracian Elite Infantry should be left in game because they are armoured falxmen and are very cool looking too!

EDIT: Daoi Elite Falxmen and Bastarnae Elite Falxmen could be recruitable by Cimbri too as Dacians were allies with the germanic Buri...
Celts and Germans imported the sica and the falx from the Dacians so one or both should be recruitable by Cimbri too...

[tone]

Basically it will work like this....

Thraikan elite falxmen (actually they're using rhomphaiae):



Bastarnae:



Daoi elite infantry:



The last two share a model. At the moment the Thraikan falxmen and the Daoi are using the same model, but this will change and the Daoi will be using the same model as the Bastarnae - as above. What shall we call the Daoi unit? Daoi elite falxmen? Daoi elite infantry? .....and maybe the Thraikan unit should be Thraikan Elite Rhomphaiophoroi?

[torzsoktamas]

I don't get it.The bastarnae and the daoi share a model,....yes i get this.But how come the thrakian falxmen share a model with the daoi?Those are old units.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Tone could you explain the difference between all the Falxmen for me, please?

It's a bit tricky setting up the Dacian roster for MP as I do not know which Falx-armed units I should be including, how elite they are supposed to be compared with normal "spear and sickle-troops" and if for example Boii also should have a unit of Falx. I think Falxmen are awesome and would like to see more of them, but I know to little about them to implement them properly.

[tone]

Visarion would probably be able to explain best....but basically something like this:

Dacia should definitely have Dacian Elite Falxmen, Daoi Elite infantry and Bastarnae (basically a weaker and somewhat cheaper version of the Daoi elite) - the Dacian elites can hold the line, the Daoi should be used for shock - they have a massive charge bonus and should have power_charge attribute too. Bastarnae similar but not quite as good.

Thraikans would be optional for the Dacian roster but probably worth including.

I'll be uploading updated EDU and DMB files later today, hopefully.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Could Bastarnae be considered as Falxmen of the line or would Thraikian Falxmen be more suitable for that role? Or is Falx an elite only weapon?

Should Boii have access to Bastarnae? Will Thraikian Elite Falxmen and Daoi Falxmen be seperate units now?